Classification and ordination of plant communities along an altitudinal gradient on the Presidential Range,New Hampshire,USA

An analysis of vegetation along an altitudinal gradient on the Presidential Range, New Hampshire, USA, using the Braun–Blanquet approach followed by multivariate data analysis is presented. Twelve main plant communities have been distinguished. Floristic information is presented in twelve tables and one appendix. The relationships of the communities to complex environmental gradients are analyzed using Correspondence Analysis. Floristic composition and community structure are controlled primarily by the altitudinal gradient (temperature, precipitation), and by mesotopographic conditions (snow accumulation, exposure and cryoturbation, slope position, and soil moisture).     

Yaks and sheep trigger different changes in the grasshopper assemblages of the Qilian Mountains via differentially altering plant assemblages

1. The Qilian Mountains represent one of the key livestock‐raising grasslands in China. The two main herbivore species raised in this area – yaks and sheep – are of critical economical value. Grasshoppers compete with these animals for available nutrients, creating multifaceted relationships between livestock, grasshoppers and plants. A clear understanding of such relationships is lacking and is urgently needed to guide conservation efforts. 2. This study aims to document the effects of yak and sheep grazing on grasshopper assemblages and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of such effects. 3. It is shown here that yaks and sheep impact grasshopper assemblages differently. Grasshopper assemblages exhibited lower density, biodiversity, richness, and evenness of distribution in yak‐grazed pastures than in grazing‐free grasslands. Sheep‐grazed pastures exhibited a dramatically divergent picture, with elevated density, biodiversity and richness, and a slightly decreased evenness of distribution. Grasshoppers were generally larger in grazed pastures than in grazing‐free grasslands, especially in yak‐grazed plots. 4. The present study suggests that differences between yak and sheep pastures in plant assemblage structure and plant traits are probably the underlying forces driving the differences in grasshopper assemblage structure and grasshopper traits, respectively. 5. The study shows that the grasshopper habitat indicator species differ between yak and sheep pastures, raising the possibility that such indicators can be used to monitor grassland usage and degradation in the Qilian Mountains. 6. These results provide novel insights into the dynamic interactions of common domesticated herbivore species, grasshoppers and plants in Qilian Mountains, which augment current knowledge and may ultimately lead to better conservation practices.     

The Twice-Killed: Imagining Protest Suicide

The inspiration I take from J. M. Coetzee's book Elizabeth Costello (2003) is his advocacy of imagining as an alternative to rational thought. Imagining, as I understand him, is mindwork that engages the body as an experiential and metaphorical site. I apply this notion of imagining to suicides conducted in the service of political protest: The fatal hunger strike of ten prisoners in Northern Ireland in 1981 and Jan Palach's self-immolation in Prague in 1969. Three questions direct the exploration of their trajectories: What feeds the hope for the effectiveness of protest suicides? How do they use the body as a performance site? Do such suicides call for an ethics of attentiveness?     

Generalizing from experiments: is predation strong or weak in the New England rocky intertidal?

Summary Petraitis (1990) recently critized previous generalizations regarding the effects of predation in the New England rocky intertidal region (e.g., Menge 1976; Lubchenco and Menge 1978). Contrary to Lubchenco's and my conclusions, Petraitis concluded that (1) barnacles and not mussels are the favored prey of dogwhelks and (2) barnacles and not dogwhelks control mussel abundances in the mid and low rocky intertidal region. I provide evidence that these criticisms are unwarranted. First, Lubchenco and I never claimed that diet composition reflected prey preference. Moreover, predators can influence prey abundance without preferring the prey. Hence, claims regarding preferences have no bearing on our conclusions. Second, Petraitis' experiments do not invalidate Lubchenco's and my experimental results. Reanalyses of our experimental data support the earlier conclusion that at wave-sheltered sites, whelks reduce the abundance of mussels independently of barnacle abundances. Further, at all but one of Lubchenco's and my study sites, predator densities were higher than at Petraitis' site. Thus, the absence of a predator effect in Petraitis's study was most likely due to low predator density rather than a lack of generality of our earlier results. This reevaluation therefore suggests that within a broader conceptual framework, Petraitis' apparently divergent results are actually consistent with ours.     

A preliminary note on the intestinal parasites of wild chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains,Tanzania

Feces of wild chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania, were inspected for intestinal parasites under a compound microscope. Eggs or larvae ofOesophagostomum, Strongyloides, Trichuris, Prosthenorchis, andBertiella were found. Intestinal nematodes significantly increased in the mid-rainy season. This finding supports (or, at least, is not in conflict with) the hypothesis thatAspilia leaves which are occasionally swallowed by chimpanzees may function as a vermicide, since ingestion of such leaves also increases significantly in the mid-rainy season.     

Antigenic variation is associated with DNA rearrangements in a relapsing fever Borrelia

Borrelia hermsii, an agent of relapsing fever, undergoes antigenic variation in its host. Surface-exposed proteins with differing primary structures determine the serotype of each organism. Using amino acid sequence data from two of these variable proteins, we synthesized two mixed-sequence oligonucleotides and then used the oligonucleotides to probe mRNA and DNA of three isogenic serotypes of B. hermsii. In Northern blots the probes were specific for the mRNA of the homologous serotype. Southern blots revealed two classes of hybridizing fragments: those common to the three serotypes and those specific for a particular serotype. A serotype-specific DNA fragment, which had hybridized to both oligonucleotide probes, was cloned. Subsequent use of the cloned fragment as a probe provided further evidence that antigenic variation in B. hermsii is associated with DNA rearrangements and with occurrence of expression-linked copies of all, or part, of an antigen-specifying gene.